International Grade 7-12 Students Present Wastewater Recycling Research in NDSU Conference

11/16/2011

hirty middle school and high school students from four countries will meet by teleconference at North Dakota State University on Saturday, Nov. 19, to present research from a six-month wastewater recycling project.

Fargo, N.D. — Thirty middle school and high school students from four countries will meet by teleconference at North Dakota State University on Saturday, Nov. 19, to present research from a six-month wastewater recycling project.

The International WateRediscover Conference will be 7:30 a.m.-10 a.m. on Nov. 19 in E. Morrow Lebedeff (EML) 183 at NDSU. Five teams from Bangladesh, India, Uganda and the United States will each give 15-minute presentations on projects where they designed, fabricated and tested wastewater recycling units following the engineering design process.

“The primary objective of WateRediscover is to entice our younger generation to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education,” said Achintya Bezbaruah, assistant professor of civil engineering at NDSU and WateRediscover project director. “This will also give our students in the U.S. the opportunity to interact with their peers from across the globe.”

A group of ninth and 10th graders from the West Fargo Public Schools will represent the U.S. They will participate in the teleconference at NDSU, while the other teams will participate from their hometowns.

NDSU President Dean L. Bresciani will inaugurate the event by teleconference. Other speakers include David Flowers, superintendent of the West Fargo School District, and Eakalak Khan, chair of the civil engineering department at NDSU. Jay Garland, director of the microbiological and chemical exposure assessment research division of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, will join by telephone from Cincinnati.

Bezbaruah has worked with West Fargo students on water recycling projects in the past, but expanded it to an international scale this year. International graduate students at NDSU helped him propose the project to schools in their home countries. Bezbaruah hopes to expand the program to more countries next year.

NDSU will stream the teleconference live at http://134.129.203.38/tcs. It will be the first link on that day and will not require a password.

To reserve a seat at the teleconference, contact Achintya Bezbaruah at a.bezbaruah@ndsu.edu or 231-7461. Students in grades 6-12 are especially encouraged to attend.